Can Simpson live up to high expectations?

Trevis Simpson lived up to his father’s billing as a guy who jumps like Vince Carter during Blackwater’s recent tune-up game against Gilas Pilipinas when he jumped as high as he could to prevent Kobe Paras from scoring an alley-oop dunk.

The small crowd who attended the scrimmage at the Meralco gym, though, failed to witness at least a dunk from the Blackwater import, wary of what to expect in the Governors’ Cup which starts next week.

Trevis Simpson.

“I have to be a little bit careful, these guys aren’t as big as in the other league so I have to watch my legs a little bit,” Simpson said after the game that Blackwater losing 105-101 to Gilas.

Much is expected from the 25-year-old Simpson in the season-ending conference, with Blackwater won’t be having Art dela Cruz due to his Achilles injury and Mac Belo expected to spend more time representing Gilas in the William Jones Cup in Taiwan and possibly the FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon.

Coach Leo Isaac, though, has urged his healthy local players to contribute a little bit of everything as they seek to enter the quarterfinals for the first time since their breakthrough appearance in the 2016 Philippine Cup.

“We’re not relying on a number of players, we’re trying to improve as a team just like we’ve been doing,” Isaac said. “Hopefully our options will be a lot better, we never rely on one, two or three players, basta whoever is open, whoever has the opportunity, we’ll give him the license to get those shots.”